Trishul (missile)

Trishul, meaning trident, is an Indian short-range surface-to-air missile developed under the Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme that India launched in 1983 alongside Agni, Prithvi, Akash and Nag. It was designed as a quick-reaction, low-level, all-weather system able to engage targets out to about nine kilometres, and with a radar altimeter in its warhead it could also serve as a defence against sea-skimming anti-ship missiles such as Exocet and Harpoon. A tracked Trishul Combat Vehicle carries its launcher and fire-control radar, and a vertically launched naval version was flight-tested from 1999. Development was repeatedly delayed by guidance and propellant problems, the project was de-linked from the user services and treated as a technology demonstrator, and the Indian Navy bought the Israeli Barak system instead. The source gives a 1999 service induction alongside these accounts of delay, so its operational status is described as contested.